PGA Tour pros do this to their wedges every week, right?

I recently took a trip to PING headquarters in Phoenix and had an amazing experience where Adam Harding, from the Ping tour truck, gave me a belly rub.

When we visited Ping before with Fully Fit, I had trouble finding the right lob wedge, which was disappointing because I liked the way it felt off the face and it turned better than anything else I’d tried all week. Thankfully, we had another trip out west, and I got to work with Adam, who I had been texting for weeks about my request for a phone call.

I have received comments from viewers and fans that this is not something “normal,” and it is difficult to compare the experience to what a consumer would get. That, however, is wrong, and I’m really happy to let you in on this little secret.

How do I know if I need a custom grind?

When we went out looking for Fully Fit at Ping, I really enjoyed the new S259 wedges. In full shots with the gap wedge and the sand wedge, I was impressed with the feel, and most importantly, the flight that the wedges produced with more spin than I had seen in anything I tested. This was confirmed throughout the week-long trip.

The problem was we couldn’t get the lob wedge. I tend to play a low lob wedge to prioritize the ability to open the face without exposing the leading edge. This helps add functional bounce while allowing me to create.

Ironically, the best option of the day at Fully Fit ended up being the W grind, but that was because I could make the wedge work for most types of square face shots. Leaning on the shaft, putting the hands back, or going down was easy and the wedge was very forgiving, but I had to give up the option to open the face on small shots near the green. With that width of the sole and that much jumping, it wasn’t something I was comfortable watching or accomplishing.

This is where custom milling comes in.

A friend of mine used to work on all of my golf clubs, and over the past few years, we’ve found that a lot of reduction in the heel of any lob wedge is good for my game. I like to swing the face open, and the heel drop helps a lot with that.

I also like to add a skid to the leading edge to make sure I don’t build a knife that digs into the ground and doesn’t come out. In 2024, I played the Mizuno T24 which was a custom platform with lead-edge camber and heel relief, and in 2025, I did the same with the Cobra King, a new grind that is the current bag runner.

There was something about these Ping S259 wedges that I really liked, so I messaged Adam about making some changes to the H-Grind, which was pretty close to testing. It worked well around greens, but was too sharp for long shots or full shots. Hard drilling and misalignment is a common problem with the H-Grind, and I have the same problem.

Adam was sure he could help. He texted me saying that he had explored other options for that problem every time I was able to see him next. You can see all the interactions in the YouTube video we created.

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Finding out what a normal grind should be

We started by hitting a few shots with the “competitors”. Adam wanted to use the S259 S-Grind as a base test because it is the “standard” PING grind. It is multi-player and has a unique way of displaying what a player might need from a wedge. It’s not exactly a grind for me.

Sure enough, I pulled one out of the pipe. Definitely not the one we would move forward with. Next, we went back to test the H-Grind. We were pretty sure this one would work for me on the green, so it was a fun test just to show off a little. Grind has about 90% of what I want for short shots around the green, but I could still feel the heel contact the ground before the ball.

Finally, Adam, for his research, wanted me to hit the newly designed E-Grind.

IE-Grind takes the classic Ping Eye method of grinding and modernizes it for today’s game. It still has an Eye grind-style cutout on the sole, giving it two leading edges and two trailing edges in a way.

The idea is to keep the front of the wedge jumping low for easy use around the green, but high enough in the jump to hit full shots. Unfortunately for me, the leading edge build was still very sharp with the way up the pitch and full shots. Even when I try to open it near the green, I struggle to get past that “second cut” on the tee. We went back to the H-Grind to hit a few shots and decided it would be our first stop.

From there, Adam went to work.

He started by taking a new S259 H-Grind from the truck cab (not including the weight hole) and taking it to the grinding belt. Using a coarse, aggressive belt, he began to remove the items.

Since Adam had done the same thing himself, it didn’t take him long to get there. He removed a bunch of material from the heel, and what used to be a lump in that area became nice and flat. He then smoothed the remainder of the wedge with a fine, non-aggressive belt to aid alignment before facing the leading edge.

In order to make it sharper without adding extra jumps, he had to be careful with the angle he chose to grind this new skid. By blunting the leading edge a bit and creating swing, I can stay low on the angle of attack without worrying about the wedge getting stuck in the ground on shots or multiple full shots.

Again, he started with a coarse belt to reduce the shape and remove the material, then finished with a finer belt to join it back to the hem. Since this was a Hydropearl 2.0 Chrome finish, it’s easy to see the work that’s been done, but Adam did a great job assembling the finish, even with the finish removed.

To make sure we didn’t miss it

After Adam set up the new wedge, he built it to my specifications with a Project X 6.5 Wedge shaft and a GolfPride Tour Velvet Cord grip.

The cool part about building a PING wedge from scratch is accessing the CTP weights (pictured above). The heads start with no weight in the port, so they can build a wedge without worrying about tip weights or swing weight at all, really, then the right CTP weight can be put into the final design to ensure the right swing weight.

This is great if it means that there is no problem of building different lengths and, for me, building it is equal to the length of the gap.

Once the wedge was dry, we headed back to the PING Proving Grounds to pull out the greens to hit the same shots we started with.

I felt the difference immediately.

It was very easy to open the wedge and be aggressive in my angle of attack without fear of driving the wedge into the ground. We quickly hit some good shots and headed to the range to hit full shots. This is where we would find out if all the testing was worth it.

Good news: it was windy. The wedge never got stuck on the ground. It came into place quickly, which helped me make confident contact with the ball, but came out so quickly that spin rates remained constant, impact area and claim consistency improved. The plane window I could see was almost perfect. One shot after another, Adam’s superior grind proved its worth. I was a very happy golfer with a new tool.

The tour experience is great… but how can the average golfer experience this?

One of the most common comments I’ve received since this content went live is that it’s unfair to show an experience that the average consumer can’t get.

But that is not true.

There are plenty of bay fitters who fit custom wedges and grind them, as well as many online resources for places to send your wedge and notes on how you want it milled. Remember, some things will require more investment. If you really think you’re out of options in the wedge market, investing a few bucks to get one the way you need it is totally worth it. It’s up to me, anyway. But that’s not even the best part.

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The cool news is that this kind of experience is available with Ping Custom. An authorized Ping reseller can work with Ping through what is called the Ping WRX program. It’s a “if you know, you know” system, but it’s one of the cool ways Ping sets itself apart.

Offerings like it are part of the reason Ping doesn’t sell directly to the customer. They want to make sure the gear is properly inspected or, preferably, installed. Working with authorized dealers on products like the Ping WRX, allows customers and their partners to be specific about what they want from Ping and bring this kind of experience to the average consumer.

For more information on that program, visit your local authorized PING dealer. I’d like to stay away from big box stores over this, though, and find a local replicator or local golf shop near you to help order properly.

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